1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electronic devices, and in one aspect to an enhanced computer peripheral input device.
2. Background
Time that an individual could otherwise spend engaged in more valuable pursuits is wasted during the course of a normal day moving to and from one or more electronic devices to turn such devices on or off or to otherwise operate these devices in some manner. For example, in today's society, in the course of one day, typically an individual expends some portion of his or her time walking, reaching, or otherwise moving to and from a computer (e.g., to turn the computer on or off, to insert a disk, to open or close a disk drive, and/or to reset the computer), a monitor (e.g., to turn the monitor on or off, to adjust settings), a printer (e.g., to turn the printer on or off, to manipulate certain printer settings, or to otherwise operate the printer), a copy machine (e.g., to turn the copy machine on or off or to otherwise operate the device), a phone (e.g., to answer the phone), as well as numerous other electronic devices.
Moreover, for some of these devices, once the device is turned on, one or more start-up routines must be completed before the device may be utilized. For example, at start-up, a computer performs a boot-up routine (e.g., a power-on self-test (POST)) before a user is allowed to further operate the computer. Similarly, certain copy machines and printers must perform warm-up routines before they may be further operated by a user. Therefore, in some instances, in addition to the time spent moving to and from a device, additional time is wasted once at the device waiting for the device to complete any necessary start-up routines.